Hi! New here hopefully someone can give a little insight on my 2023 Chevy Tahoe Z71. My Tahoe has 32k miles on it no issue until now. In the last month it has drained the battery 3 times. 1 st time towed to a dealership complete battery failure they replaced the battery. 1 week later same thing complete battery failure towed to a different Chevy dealership they said the previous dealership put the wrong battery in it they replaced it and delivered it back home. 3 days later dead battery along with an on and off whining noise. Towed back to the second dealership where it has been for a week with nothing figured out yet. Supposedly they are sending a GM technician to look at it. I drive this vehicle everyday it doesn’t sit. Has anyone else had this issue????
2023 Tahoe keeps draining battery
- Thread starter awaters83
- Start date
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Sounds like something is not shutting down in the vehicle.
Often the problem with the dealers is they do not lock the vehicle like you probably do when the battery drains. Additionally they may have it inside the shop and things like GPS and maybe even OnStar may not connect like if it was at your house.
You need to think about how you leave the vehicle when the battery drains. Locked, in garage, outside and so forth. This is all important stuff. Also how far is the keyfob from the vehile when parked at your place? You may need to put the keyfob in a cookie tin or wrap in foil and see what happens. These newer cars with long range keyfobs can do some crazy things.
If the drain is continous, this is an EASY thing to find with a decent Amp meter to watch if the vehicle goes to sleep. But the dealer needs to pop the hood and possibly the tailgate and close the jam switches so they can have access to parts of the vehicle. A meter with a computer interface that can Log activity overnight is useful, but many techs do not have one of these.
Once you find a continous drain that is too high, you need to start pulling fuses until the current drops to locate the offending circuit. if someone can find the vehicle drawing more than like 50 milliAmps, then this is a problem. They could benchmark the drain on a similar vehicle to get an idea as what is considered normal. Probably between 30-50 milliAmps woud be my guess.
Also keep in mind these truck have the alternator Voltage controlled by the ECU and often the ECU will actually turn the alternator off and run completely on the battery, so at times the vehicle Voltage can drop down as low as 12.2-12.6 Volts. This system is called the Regulated Voltage Control (RVC) system. Often people not familiar with this system will condemn the Alternator when if fact is is fine. Testing the charging system on these trucks can be a bit tricky.
There were issues with the mid to late 2000 GM cars and trucks where the OnStar module would wake up and not shut down and kill the battery.
Often the problem with the dealers is they do not lock the vehicle like you probably do when the battery drains. Additionally they may have it inside the shop and things like GPS and maybe even OnStar may not connect like if it was at your house.
You need to think about how you leave the vehicle when the battery drains. Locked, in garage, outside and so forth. This is all important stuff. Also how far is the keyfob from the vehile when parked at your place? You may need to put the keyfob in a cookie tin or wrap in foil and see what happens. These newer cars with long range keyfobs can do some crazy things.
If the drain is continous, this is an EASY thing to find with a decent Amp meter to watch if the vehicle goes to sleep. But the dealer needs to pop the hood and possibly the tailgate and close the jam switches so they can have access to parts of the vehicle. A meter with a computer interface that can Log activity overnight is useful, but many techs do not have one of these.
Once you find a continous drain that is too high, you need to start pulling fuses until the current drops to locate the offending circuit. if someone can find the vehicle drawing more than like 50 milliAmps, then this is a problem. They could benchmark the drain on a similar vehicle to get an idea as what is considered normal. Probably between 30-50 milliAmps woud be my guess.
Also keep in mind these truck have the alternator Voltage controlled by the ECU and often the ECU will actually turn the alternator off and run completely on the battery, so at times the vehicle Voltage can drop down as low as 12.2-12.6 Volts. This system is called the Regulated Voltage Control (RVC) system. Often people not familiar with this system will condemn the Alternator when if fact is is fine. Testing the charging system on these trucks can be a bit tricky.
There were issues with the mid to late 2000 GM cars and trucks where the OnStar module would wake up and not shut down and kill the battery.
Last edited:
StephenPT
Full Access Member
This is a helpful document to follow when looking for a parasitic draw - https://gm-techlink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GM_TechLink_24_Mid-December_2020.pdf
We keep it inside a metal building mostly locked. We did try the key in the foil trick after the second time. We have an amp meter we will try if the dealership can’t figure anything out and something tells me they won’t. Thank you for your advice way more helpful than Chevy!
There is a TSB… Technical Service Bulletin the dealers have. If this is the same situation it has to do with the rear seat controls in the cargo area where the connectors are not fully plugged it.. good luck
